The early work of Chingiz Aitmatov through the prism of the history of philosophy

Abstract

The article analyses the early work of the Kyrgyz writer and thinker Chingiz Aitmatov (1928–2008) through the prism of the history of philosophy. The author believes that in his early work Aitmatov acts more as a writer living in the undivided world of Kyrgyz culture than as a philosopher, and therefore his work cannot be described on the basis of a purely rational philosophical methodology. At the same time, ethical issues occupy a key place in the work of Aitmatov in the early period. Here Aitmatov’s characters still lack that «inoculation» of Cartesian doubt, which can be easily found in his later works. In them the writer rethinks ethics as a given and, being under the great influence of Russian and European literature, begins his search for the foundations of ethics, but in a metaphysical interpretation.